Minority report

Diversity forum scheduled during startup business expo.

Diversity is not a strong suit in the venture capital world as women and ethnic minorities are less likely to receive funding for their startup business ventures than their white male counterparts, according to studies in the field of entrepreneurship.

At the SUP-X startup business expo in Fort Lauderdale early next month, a forum is scheduled to examine the reasons why and explore what can be done to rectify the situation.

The diversity forum is the Monday morning portion of a two-day conference, March 6 and 7, at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward Convention Center, 1950 Eisenhower Blvd., in Fort Lauderdale.

Rachel Braun Scherl, an entrepreneur in the health care industry, will be the keynote speaker beginning at 8:40 a.m. March 6. Scherl heads consulting company Spark Solutions for Growth, which has offices in Connecticut and New Jersey.

Panel discussions will follow including “Challenges of being a Diverse Entrepreneur” and “Minority Access to Capital.”

The diversity forum also will feature a “fireside chat” with Carmen Castillo, founder of SDI International in Fort Lauderdale, a global procurement and sourcing company that Castillo, an immigrant from Spain, began in her apartment in 1992. The company is now one of the largest minority-owned and women-owned procurement organizations in the country.

Minority entrepreneurs generally have had less access to capital, experts say. Though white entrepreneurs rely mostly on banks for financing a business, black entrepreneurs relied the most on credit cards, according to The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which studies entrepreneurship.

Nearly 60 percent of black entrepreneurs and more than 50 percent of Hispanic entrepreneurs avoided bank financing because they didn’t think they would be approved, according to a Kauffman study last year.

The lack of access and cost of capital affected the profitability of minority-owned businesses, the report said.

Tickets for SUP-X are $59 to $399, depending on selected events. Find more information at supx.org.

Castillo